Halo: Reach developer Bungie made some news and showed off some new features of the upcoming game at a San Diego Comic-Con panel Thursday evening. Among the new features demonstrated was a greatly expanded version of Forge, Halo 3’s sandbox map editor, called Forgeworld.
Forgeworld is a massive environment stocked with a dizzying array of editing tools wherein players can customize their Halo playing environment to their heart’s content. Customization is something of a watchword for the new game. Multiplayer designer Lars Bakken told the crowd that the design philosophy for the game centered around players being able to make the game whatever they wanted it to be. To that end, Bungie simply constructed a huge world teeming with different variations of topography, provided a complete set of map editing tools and is content to sit back, get out of the way, and let the dedicated Halo community do their thing. And the customization philosophy doesn’t end with the environment.
From avatar creation to match-making, Halo: Reach is seemingly sparing no expense in allowing players to make the game experience exactly what they want it be. Every facet of the game appears customizable, from avatar skins to match mutators and more. Want to play for five minutes? Done. Want all the enemies to be Hunters? Can do. Want to play as the Covenant? What’s that, you say? Yeah, you can do that, too. To great fanfare, Bakken announced to the crowd that the Covenant would be playable in a new Firefight mode and proceeded to demonstrate by spawning on the map as a Covenant Elite surrounded by a squad of other Elites, complete with Covenant weapons and unique abilities.
Bakken also stated that while Forgeworld maps would only be available in competitive match modes, the game would make custom content easier to distribute, thus helping the best content “rise to the top” and propagate throughout the Halo community by avoiding the pitfalls of incompatibility. Though this is sad news for Firefight aficionados, it was confirmed that all the Firefight maps will be taken from the single player campaign and maintain the co-op emphasis established in Halo: ODST.
Halo: Reach is Bungie’s swan song for the storied Halo franchise that tells the story of Noble Team, a squad of Spartan soldiers fighting to defend the human colony of Reach from an assault by the alien Covenant hordes in events that take place before the events in the first Halo game released in 2001. To commemorate the game’s release, Bakken also announced a special Limited Edition version of the new XBOX 360 slim console, with a Halo: Reach aesthetic and two matching wireless controllers, as well as special editions of the game. A Limited Edition will contain a printed version of Dr. Halsey’s Journal, pages of which are items found in the game, and a Legendary Edition that will contain a statue of Noble Team designed by Todd McFarlane. Both editions will also come with unique in-game items. The game will also ship with a number of maps made by Bungie designers using nothing more than the tools and techniques available using Forgeworld. Expect to fight for Reach on September 14, 2010.
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